Ruhr Oel orders ethylene cracking furnaces

By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Apr. 10 -- Ruhr Oel GMBH hired Linde AG for the turnkey installation of five cracking furnaces for an ethylene plant at the company's Gelsenkirchen-Scholven site in Germany. The total order value is €130 million.

Ruhr Oel is a joint venture of BP PLC and Petroleos de Venezuela SA. The new furances will replace 17 furnaces that no longer comply with environmental requirements for nitric oxide, dust emissions, and energy efficiency.

The new furnaces, each with capacity of 100,000 tonnes/year of ethylene, will be able to process heavy hydrocarbons to naphtha and gaseous feedstocks. In September 2007, during a routine plant shutdown, the old furnaces will be dismantled and the new ones installed.